Impatient for Impatiens

Once upon a time, we moved.  For the tenth time.  I didn't want to move.  I was weary of moving. But it needed to happen.  It always seemed that just as we were settling into a home, just as I felt it was safe to start a garden....or plant some flowers.... our world would turn upside down and there we'd go again. 

I've come to see flower beds and gardens as the great sign of stability.  Every flower bed or pot I've planted over the years was an act of faith-  faith that perhaps, maybe, we were home at last.  But over and over again, I would leave behind the beginnings of those beds and half-grown planters, never once being able to see them fully realized. 

I dream of overflowing impatiens.   I love their sweet little petals and late summer colors, and the way they fill in a spot with August loveliness.  To me, they sing "home." 

Every time I move, almost the minute we've unpacked, I begin scouting out the yard- searching for the perfect spot for my irresistable bouquet.  Only once have I actually planted them- for so long pregnant or nursing or toting little ones, moving in, moving out, settling in, settling out.  Even then, they failed to thrive...and then we moved.  It just never happened the way I envisioned.  A perpetually unfulfilled dream.

I was feeling it keenly when we moved to Virginia.  It was late July.  Too late for planting.   [sigh...]  I soothed myself with the thought that this was to be our last move for a very very long time.  The day would come...soon. 

 My Mom had flown into town to help out with the unpacking, when, one afternoon she spotted a little flower poking out of the soil in the front yard.  Just one. 

"Oh!"  She said.  "It looks like you have a little impatiens here!" 

"What?" I crouched down and took a look.  Sure enough.  There was one little pink impatiens plant randomly growing in our front yard. 



I smiled. 

Before the summer was out, two more little plants popped up.  I was pretty sure God was winking at me. 

The next spring I planted pansies, but it was just to pass the time and fill the space until I could adorn it with impatiens.  All the while, I schemed and dreamed of my bursting beds.  Summer came, and busy-ness along with it. Visits to and from family occupied our days.  The week I had mentally calendared for planting my impatiens arrived and we found ourselves making a last minute decision to visit family sites in Pittsburgh with Creighton's parents.  I didn't say it out loud (because who makes a decision like that based on a prior commitment to plant flowers?? ), but I worried that this trip might thwart me once again.  It would be too late to plant when we got back. 

I let it go.  Again.

Our trip was so good.  A once in a lifetime visit that we'll remember forever.  I drove home satisfied that the loss of my flowers was worth the gain. 

We arrived home after dark, bleary-eyed from a long drive, and tumbled into bed. 

The next morning, I woke up and was in the kitchen when I noticed smatterings of pink and purple flashing through the window.  I peered out and could not believe my eyes.  Whisking myself out the side door, this is what I beheld:

 

A complete and utter miracle. 

Only God could have produced something so wondrously beautiful in a matter of days.  And in proportions exceeding even my own dreams and expectations!  I had to catch my breath, I was so overcome with inexpressible delight. 

"How on Earth?!!!" I marveled, aghast.

  

"For You."  heaven whispered.